Customer Reviews

Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process

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In Writing with Power, Peter Elbow shares several of his thoughts on techniques for everyone and anyone who writes. Divided into several sections with titles of "Audience" and "Feedback," Elbow walks writers through every step of the writing process, including thoughts on relieving writer's block, sharing individual writing with others, and several different types of actual writing processes and revision. His unorthodox approach to teaching how to write is something that inevitably spills over into this book. Personally, I found this book to be very useful in my own personal writing. I never would have considered giving myself a set amount of time to get something done (and stopping when that time is over) or adding a dialogue to a serious paper. I would also have never given myself permission to "waste" my time on something as frivolous as freewriting to get my mind going. Writing with Power is easy to read and highly enjoyable. His suggestions are valuable and very applicable to every kind of writing. Elbow is not afraid to go out on a limb in his own writing, which only serves as proof that Elbow "practices what he preaches" - and that it can work in daily writing.

Dr. Elbow augments the usual writing suggestions by exploring the impact writing has on the reader. He reaches levels of aid and analysis that can't easily be put into words, but rather felt. After reading this book I couldn't wait to apply this insight to my next professional document. I was also able to give clearer guidelines to my collaborators to improve the value of their feedback to me.

Peter Elbow gave me permission to write and helped shut down the internal editors in my head. If you're stuck, read this book. He's the best writing teacher I've never had!